A Brave New World
by belly131
Summary: In the future, the X-gene has become more and more prevalent in American demographics. As more and more mutants are born, the United States becomes a dystopia in which mutants slaughter humans in the streets. But an unforeseen change occurs when the humans begin evolving along with the mutants as the prey need to be stronger, faster, and better in order to stay alive...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I only own my original characters and the direction I take the xmen universe in:)

* * *

In the future, the meaning of "mutant" has changed completely. A record amount of births of children possessing the X-gene has made history as for once, the mutants are beginning to outnumber the humans. This change in the patterns of mutations has meant a change in the definition of being "mutant."

Once feared and loathed, this view flipped upside down as a majority of the population became mutants themselves. The roles were reversed and mutants, once hunted and persecuted, became the upper class. Humans, once secure in their thoughts that they were the superior beings, were hunted down and slaughtered in the streets in vengeance.

An upset of power occurred in the United States as malicious mutants took over political offices with the promise to old mutants that the people who once persecuted them would be punished justly; the newer mutants soon fell in with the mob-like mentality and mutants ran the streets. Cities fell into decay and crumble as mutants set into a lavish lifestyle in the inner city, leading hedonistic lives and massacring humans at their every whim.

Humans rushed to the outskirts of towns in fear for their lives. Living in shanty little homes in hoovervilles, everyday was a struggle when put up against someone who could throw balls of fire or make innards combust with a single hand gesture Humans sank into a life of poverty as government officials merely ignored their existence, as if they were an infestation of rats.

But an unexpected change occurred. As mutants evolved becoming more and more dangerous and more and more prevalent, the humans adapted too. In order to ward off predators who were more powerful than them, the humans in turn were forced to become faster, stronger, _better_.

The present day- a war field between the mutants and the humans, but the question is. Who will win?


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I only own my original characters and the direction this story goes in:)

* * *

Kid Blue.

I like to make comparisons often. Like if I were still a regular human, would I feel like dying around now or would I just be numb at this point? I think I'd probably be crying. I crouch on a pipe connected to the ceiling, miraculously able to keep my balance. I had never been balanced in my life before I changed. Pre-change my muscles would have been screaming and trembling, I probably would have passed out from all the strain I put on my body already. I was never athletic before the Superiors took over.

The mutant below me walks past the guarded armory. Little does he know, I had just crawled through the ventilation system and ransacked the room for all my backpack and coat pockets could carry. It almost made me giggle. But that would make the guards below realize I was here, and according to Bliss' research one of them could impale me with spikes and the other could make my vision completely fail. I continue to army crawl as best as I can manage across the metal pipe towards the nearest window.

Of course how I'd break the glass- and silently at that- was completely beyond me, but my foremost concern was getting to where the rest of my team waited. As I finally reach the glass, I realize there are two ways I could go about this. Taking the time to cut a way through the glass and then silently reaching the rooftop, while in the meantime my team could possibly risk discovery; or get out of here as fast as possible while probably making a racket and being seen.

Thousands of scenarios flash through my head but I already know what direction it's going to go in so I don't know why I bother trying to find another way out. I turn my belly sensor on and take a deep breath. Briefly, I wonder if it will hurt. Before I can ponder any responses I'm bashing my elbow against the window pane until it shatters.

"You there!" Yells one of the guards, it's strange because I can almost see his mutation at work. His pores enlarge, and from them protrude large spiny spikes which grow and seem to shoot from him skin- towards me! I panic, stopping my analysis of his mutation and attempting to launch myself out the window before hitting a set of iron bars- hard.

The first set of spikes misses me just barely, embedding themselves an inch deep in the concrete surrounding me. The adrenaline in my system spikes. I grasp the metal bars with both fists, my legs locking themselves around the pipe and I push for all that I'm worth. Sometimes I forget I'm not just a human anymore, but then to my surprise (because it surprises me every time) the bars pull free. Just as soon as the bars fall out of my hands everything goes black.

Instantly panic sets in, I feel my legs starting to loosen on the pipe. 'Calm down, calm down' I whisper to myself, I repeat Bliss' words over and over in my head.

"His mutation causes the optic nerve to go haywire and just shut off. If you can't see, that's him- don't worry. Just get out of there as soon as you can, radio us and we'll be right there."

With all the strength and courage I have left I launch myself out the window. I free fall through the air, my body suddenly weightless and my eyes still seeing nothing. I don't see the hands coming, so when I feel them my first instinct is to thrash.

"It's us- It's us," Leon says, I calm at the sound of his voice.

"I still can't see," My voice is oddly calm despite the panic I still feel.

"It's supposed to fade out as we exit the radius of his mutation." Says Bliss, very matter of fact. I can almost see her, sitting at the pilots seat of one of the comandeered mutant jets we jacked on a recent raid. It's odd, how sitting here without my vision I can almost see Bliss, her dark gold hair hanging in its ponytail down her back. I can see Leon next to her, his dark head moving across the dashboard reading the signs of the jet. I feel Caleb slipping my backpack off gently. He's saying something to me but I'm not really hearing the words. The familiarity of how this has become my life makes my breath catch a little.

I want to close my eyes, take a quick nap- fade out for a few minutes. I find it strange that I don't need to close my eyes, I'm looking straight ahead with my eyes wide open and all I see pitch black. I think of my life, how I came to be sitting here at 18 and a half years old, having just ripped bars out of a cement wall and then jumping out the side of a building down three stories only to be pulled into a hijacked jet plane.

Before the change, mutants were the lower class. They were both feared and loathed because they were misunderstood. But as time passed and more genetic anomalies occurred mutants were popping out more and more often. Soon the Homo sapien superior were outnumbering us normal humans. Thing were downhill from there. The Superiors were angry and powerful, they quickly took power and ran the towns and the cities, running all the remaining humans out. The humans who weren't fast enough, or thought they could stand up against the tyranny were slaughtered. It wasn't uncommon for them to kill parents in front of their children to instill fear and send a message.

Before the humans started regrouping it was an terrible time. We were all solitary, living like animals. Almost everyone had regressed to a feral, violent level, until Charlie took us in. He was one of the few remaining adult humans left, he took us all in and gave us a home and food. In exchange we did what he asked to keep us all alive; raid weapons houses, grocery stores, protect other humans who couldn't themselves.

As time progress we realized that as the mutants changed, each one more and more powerful than the next, we were changing as well. Charlie called us mutates. We were mutants too, to some degree, except that our mutation was caused by external stimuli rather than the X-gene. As we became more weak of prey, our bodies began to change. We were stronger, faster, _better_. We could endure more, were more agile, more nimble, more capable of _competing_. And here we were now, trying to take our city back.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: i only own my original characters and the direction I take this story in:)

* * *

Bliss.

"Get her in, _now." _I scream over my shoulder. The current of air produced by the opening of the hatch on top of our jet creates a drag that makes it even more difficult for a normal 18 year old to fly a small fighter plane.

"It's not like it's the easiest job in the world." Caleb retorts pulling a struggling Kid Blue in. She thrashes in his arms, her legs flailing wildly. In a reflective panel I see her leg land a solid kick to the steel chair, folding the metal armrest into a crumpled ball.

"It's us, it's us." Caleb says into her ear, she relaxes sinking into the closest seat. Her eyes still look unseeing out into space as she blinks blankly.

I study the crumpled arm rest with half a memory stuck on the back of my tongue. I think every mutate remembers the precise moment they realized that they weren't the same. I had been scavenging around the city at that time, digging through restaurant dumpsters for any last morsel because I was _so _hungry, I hadn't eaten for days. Looking back I realize that at the rate of malnutrition I was at I should have been near death but I felt like I was at the top of my game. I attributed that to adrenaline at that time, but now it makes more sense.

I hadn't heard the thug come up behind me, I was in some sort of tunnel vision from my hunger. I don't remember what he looked like, if he was mutant, mutate, or human, all I remember were the tattoos on his knuckles. They were letters, I vaguely recall trying to find out what they spelled. He was a big man, nearly two heads taller than me with muscles the size of my entire head. Shock and panic ceased to exist the very instant he laid his hands on me.

It was like everything slowed down, I could see _everything. _It was like a 3D camera on every object in my vicinity and I could see every angle of it. My mind was calculating without the knowledge of my conscious mind. I saw my own body take several different paths to escape his headlock; running over the side of a nearby dumpster, jumping off the top of a nearby crate, pushing off of the wall in front of me.

It was like my body was illustrating for me all the ways I _wasn't _helpless. I leaped up, running vertically up the wall. Before I knew it I was seated with both my legs wrapped around the back of his head, like some perverse shoulder ride. Both my hands gripped the sides of his head.

I came to only during the process of breaking his neck. The snap of vertebrate shook me out of my dream-like trance and he fell to his knees. I fell too, but on my feet. I stared at my hands in horror, what had I done? I took off running but my mind was still standing in the alleyway with the thug with a broken neck. I was horrified, I hid on a damp stoop for the rest of the night seeing invisible blood coating my fingers. That's where Charlie found me and took me home, insisting I wasn't a monster. That night was the first time I had a warm meal in one month.

There are things that people take for granted without even noticing. Sometimes they're even the tiniest of things like how the soft bustle of people in another room can make you feel infinitely safer. I slept in a bed that night, with clean sheets that smelled like they were fresh from a dryer. There are things people shouldn't take for granted that they do anyway, like the way moonlight looks filtered through lace curtains onto pink wallpaper.

We're already sitting back in base for a full ten minutes before I realize, oh I just landed a small jet on a cleared basketball court returning from an armed robbery almost nearly absent-mindedly. The fact that this has become such a routine part of my life makes me purse my lips in thought.

I look up, observing Charlie leaning forward listening to Leon's analysis of the mission. When did his hair get so gray? Why didn't I notice. Leon illustrates the entire mission with his hands as he speaks, when did the bags under his eyes get there? I turn my gaze to Caleb who leans back in his chair, nodding and adding input occasionally, when did he get that pale? Kid Blue sprawls on the couch next to Leon picking dirt from under her fingernails with a pocket knife, she looks like she hasn't slept in days. When did we get this worn out?

Because of my position facing the windows, I saw the bullet first. As the adrenaline rose in my system everything slowed down.

"Get down!" I scream, side swiping Charlie and pinning him to the ground. The second we hit the ground the glass splinters and the bullet flies over our heads. Underneath the table I see Kid Blue and Caleb's faces as we begin to army crawl to the armory.

It seems the second we fly down the hallway to the armory the living room explodes, the collision hits me in the back like a sack of bricks. We fall in a heap on top of each other, up and going before we can even process the shock. But that happens to us often- well me at least; my body is always adapting and functioning at a faster rate than my brain can keep up.

"Arm up then meet me at the jet!" Charlie yells to us as he dashes into his workshop; his voice sounds funny. As Leon turns to pull me along I realize that all the noise is filtering from my right side. Leon shouts at me from my left but the noise breaks up and it sounds like I'm under water.

"My ear!" I scream. I'm dragged again to the armory, where we toss an assortment of guns, magazines, knives, and every sort of weaponry you can imagine into a nondescript black bag or on our persons.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: all original characters are mine

* * *

Leon.

"We needed to be out of here 10 minutes ago, get moving_ now._" I push Bliss out of the room first, grabbing Caleb's shoulder on my way out.

The hallway is unrecognizable, smoky and falling apart. I step over a fallen portion of drywall holding a hand to my face as my eyes sting from the smoke rising in the hall. Kid Blue brings up the rear as we head to the basketball court and makeshift landing pad past the garage, Caleb supports Bliss whose balance is thrown because of a broken left ear drum. Gunshots sound from all around us and none of the other mutates are in sight.

"Where's Charlie?" Screams Bliss as we push open the gate to the basketball court. She and Caleb assume their regular seats readying the jet as Kid Blue and I take sniper positions waiting for Charlie and the rest of the mutates. Time ticks on punctuated by the firing of rounds and rounds of bullets. What are they shooting at? More importantly who? The finger on the trigger of my gun twitches thinking of the faces of all the mutates that had lived in Charlie's home- some as young as 8 and 9.

I wait, expecting the shining wide eyes of the younger children who used to follow us around the house. I wait, expecting the weary faces of the teenagers that I had spent hours on missions with. I wait mostly for Charlie, whose infallible kindness kept me alive a lot longer than I would have alone.

"People are coming!" Caleb yells over his shoulder. Bliss has already started turbine and is looking anxiously at us her fingers at the ready around the yoke ready to take us soaring into the sky.

More seconds are punctuated with more gunshots. After an endless round of fire Charlie bursts into the clearing clutching a set of papers. He limps toward the jet, his left leg dragging painfully at an awkward angle behind him. I reach my hand out to him to pull him in but he stays at the bottom of the stairs.

"Charlie get in we don't have any time to waste." I scream at him, Kid Blue is clutching at his jacket trying to drag him in. He throws in the handful of papers at us and starts talking in a stream of words.

"I can't come with you. I have to get the others, I can't leave them- they wouldn't survive on their own." He starts, he grips Kid Blue's hands roughly and gives them back to her.

"What's going on, we have to go now! Where are the others?" Bliss yells from the pilot's seat.

"Go to New York, go to the house I told you about they can help you there. They're mutants- but they're the good kind. They'll get you out of here." He says with finality. He grabs hold of Kid Blue's hand, lays a hand on my shoulder. In the reflection of the glass in the pilot's area he locks eyes with Caleb and Bliss.

"Go somewhere beautiful for me." He says reaching in and hitting the button that seals the door. Kid Blue bangs her hands against the door in frustration and lets out an anguished howl. Bliss reluctantly jerks the yoke upwards and we're in the air. From the windows we see Charlie disappear into the house again. We ride on in silence over the houses that are painted like little boxes.

"He's right you know." Caleb starts.

"Don't you start that shit right now Caleb." Kid Blue growls from next to me.

I put a hand on hers to calm her down. Since the beginning when Charlie took us in, we had always been the oldest and naturally we stuck together. Kid Blue and Caleb balanced each other out with their explosive tempers and fiery personalities. They butt heads everyday but in the end they were the only ones who really understood each other.

"The others _need _Charlie, they wouldn't make it one day without him. We don't need Charlie. We want him, there's a difference" Caleb continues on anyway. Bliss gives him a look as to silence him because Kid Blue is practically shaking with rage beside me.

In the same way that they seemed to go together, Bliss and I seemed to complement each other accordingly as well. I like to talk, I could talk forever about anything. And Bliss, she likes to listen. It was good for us that way, I needed to talk, needed to occupy my mind with something other than these horrors taking place around us every day. Bliss needed to listen, needed to focus her energy on something other than coldness she felt inside.

"Caleb we don't need your cynical bullshit right now, you don't-" Kid Blue starts, spitting her words out.

"Come on guys." I say softly. Kid Blue breathes, Caleb doesn't say anything more, and the tension in the room dissipates.

And together, the four of us had never felt a part of something more complete or _whole_ in our lives. The way that it felt like we were all puzzle pieces who completed each other in a way that family and former friends never did or even could. We exhale, almost in unison, and everything is back to normal. As if Kid Blue wasn't about to rip Caleb's head off for his continuous insensitive comments, as if Bliss wasn't ready to tear their clawing bodies away from each other as they legitimately tried to kill each other.

This is peace. This is belonging.

The other three always used to make fun of me for the way I spoke. They called it dramatic, I called it poetic. Knowing different languages does that to you though. It makes you really analyze the different meanings and connotations that words have. Somehow sadness has a lot more depth when you realize that toska in Russian means, "at its deepest and most painful, a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning."

Somehow "sad" doesn't quite measure up does it?


	5. Chapter 5

disclaimer: only my characters are mine.

* * *

Caleb.

We've been flying for hours. My fists clench and unclench on the iron railings of my seat. In the mirror above me I see Kid Blue, fast asleep and curled into her chair. Leon sits next to her sitting upright with his eyes closed. I turn to Bliss who seems to droop over the yoke and control panel.

"Bliss, let me take over you look exhausted." I reach out to her. She shakes her head, adamant.

"My jet." She huffs, referring the first time we stole this. After the mutants took over, nothing was stopping them from raiding the government's secret compartments and taking all the toys they wanted. We found this in the lawn of a mansion that had been taken over by a bunch of self-assured and cocky mutants. It had taken days for us to decide a plan, all sorts of insane ideas were thrown out to try and sneakily slip the hundred thousand pound jet from under their noses without them realizing.

After probably 6 hours of arguing on our stomachs from our lookout Bliss got this look in her eye and she stood up and walked all the way up their yard, hopped in the jet and turned it on with no incident. I remember the look in Leon's eyes of pure admiration and I knew he was a goner. We made it as far as the door of the jet when the mutants realized and started attacking. None of us knew how to fly a plane, let alone while under attack but Bliss took to the air like a natural. From then on it had been hers.

"We've passed New York state lines, we should be near Manchester pretty soon." She says her eyes flicking to the map glowing on our left.

I take out the paper map that Charlie threw in when we left and see one is a map of New York, marked up with a dark marker.

"I think Charlie wanted us to take a specific route," I tell her as I trace a finger along the dark markings he instructed. I enter the coordinates of the place he wants us to land, an empty field 12 miles from the address of the school he gave us.

It's not too late to turn back, to go somewhere else. I know I could easily convince Bliss who as much disgust for mutants as I do. Kid Blue and Leon would never agree to it, and there was no way we were splitting up. I finger the raised scar in the center of my palm.

_"Friends forever." She said with a twisted smile. They all pressed their bloodied palms together to appease Kid Blue. This was so her, friendship rituals that were a tad twisted. All drama, all symbolism. It's a surefire way to get AIDS that's for sure, but they did it anyway, feigning interest and trying to hide their disgust. "All we have is each other. Everyone belongs to everyone." She said it so eerily, it made him feel like he just joined a cult. 'Everyone belongs to everyone' He remembered reading Brave New World in school for english one year. But Kid Blue didn't mean it in the creepy sexual polygamy way, it was true- they belonged to each other now as a team, there was no more individual._

I studied the map again. The area we were supposed to land at was circled heavily. This mansion was high in the hills of Manchester, surrounded by no other houses. I presumed that the acres of land surrounding the mansion all belonged to the school. I grimaced thinking of having to deal with _those people. _They weren't even really people at all. Freaks. I spit the word in my head. Look at what they did, look at our homes, our lives.

"We're heading down," She calls out louder to rouse the two in the back. They buckle up and we start to descend towards the foliage.

At 21 I'm supposed to be at a bar somewhere celebrating my youth. I'm supposed to be almost done with college and the football scholarship I received my senior year of high school. I'm supposed to be looking for a job, looking forward to my new life. I'm not supposed to be in a jet plane, a rifle clutched to my chest- muscles aching and my brain screaming at me to rest.

This is my life now, this is nowhere near what I had planned. Not a word has passed between us but we follow a distinct routine. Our weaponry stowed in forest green bags, we change into neutral toned clothing stowed in a bin in the corner.

"We're on foot from here." I say looking up from the map. We slowly start our trek east, walking silently side by side. I look at our drawn faces, at the sorrow that seems permanently etched in our faces. So young, so promising; we had our entire lives ahead of us. Every time thoughts like these run through my head it only adds fuel to the burning fire that is my hate for all mutants. Silence is in the air, but somehow conversation seems to pass wordlessly between us. Someone stumbles, someone makes a noise in the back of their throat and we all lock eyes grinning madly at each other. This is what belonging is. Family isn't a word, it's a feeling.

I'm drawn from my reverie from the sound of footsteps that are too loud to be ours. In the corner of my eye I see a flash of color, we all pause- in sync. The rest of the team may not have picked up on the noises but they sure read my reaction. In the blink of an eye we're back to back, scopes out, waiting without movement for the target. I hear Leon's unasked question in my head.

"Movement, dark blue. My 11 o'clock." I slip out under my breath.

"Well look at what we have here! Our very own Red Dawn resistance movement, what do you guys call yourselves?" A voice says as a blonde haired boy slips out from in between the trees.


	6. Chapter 6

disclaimer: I only own my original characters and the direction this story takes.

* * *

Kid Blue.

We all turn, alert, to face the boy with blonde hair who looks at us like lunchmeat. Three more figures emerge from similar spots near him. An enormous built man whose arms seem to be the size of my entire body. A girl whose dark eyes seem to lack any whites. A shirtless man whose entire torso is covered with- is that real?- _writhing _animals. I don't even have to look to see Bliss' face curled up in a sneer. As usual it's Leon who takes on the peace making role.

"Now we're just making our way over to a friend's place. No need for hostility, you go your way and we go ours." Leon says gently with a tight smile.

"Now that's a great idea and all, but we never get any visitors around here. And so we're sitting here bored out of our minds, when like a little gift from heaven, your jet comes and lands in our neck of the woods." The blonde guy says, leaning forward onto his knees from the stump he sits on. I've decided I hate his face and I would like to beat it in.

"Dibs." I say under my breath, referring to my choice of opponent for when I know this will go south.

"So how about this, if you can get away alive- keep your life. You deserve it!" He says with a big grin, his friends laughing like idiotic henchmen who are just trying to please their master; I tell them this too. Their faces drop immediately- apparently they don't find me nearly as funny as I find myself.

My fingers act before my brain does, as they always do and by time I have a grasp on what's going on my hand is stretched out in front of me and a knife is whirling head over handle towards the idiot with the blonde hair. He moves- impossibly fast- until he's right next to me and the knife is handle deep in a tree far away.

"Nice miss." He hisses landing a solid blow to the side of my head before I even know what's going on.

At that exact moment, all hell breaks loose. Everyone picks their mark, scattering in different directions. I'm still reeling from the blow to my temple, and I'm pretty sure an eardrum has ruptured. I see him coming this time though and I have a gun pulled out and at his head in half a second. I start shooting, but suddenly he disappears and suddenly there's a weight on my back and I'm crashing forward.

I taste blood as I look up. I gingerly feel my face, nothing feels broken yet so I breathe a sigh of relief. My chin is scraped nearly raw as well as my palms. I whirl onto my back with my gun in my hands, looking with wild eyes for the blonde.

"Looking for me?" He says from my left, kneeling on a moss covered log. I let three bullets fly.

"You're not a good shot are you?" He taunts, suddenly at my right, less than a foot away. I let two more bullets go before he disappears again.

How am I supposed to fight someone I can't even see? I spring to my feet, standing in place and willing myself to breathe deeply. The panic in my system spikes, but unlike before when I got scared I don't just shut off anymore. Everything around me slows, even the fast moving speedster who disappeared before my very eyes. I see him now, trails of color following him as he darts this way and that.

I see him coming now, and my mind starts calculating. I see several steps I could take, scenes flash before my eyes in less than milliseconds and I pick the one with the greatest outcome. I land a solid punch to his jaw before he hits me and see him slow down to normal speed.

He cradles his jaw, which let out a very loud and satisfying crack, and looks at me in astonishment. I'm still in overdrive, I take advantage of his surprise to shoot three more times, finally satisfied when his shirt starts blossoming blood stains.

His eyes reveal his rage as he disappears from my view again. I'm pushed down to my knees, hard punches landing on all parts of my body as his colorful streak races past me.

I see a pattern though, left side until I've completely let down my guard then he batters me from the right, and so on. I feign a bad right arm, curling into a small ball to throw him off. He takes the bait, his streak moving in an arc at lightspeed to my left side.

I need to time it perfectly, three...two...one...

I launch myself upwards, ignoring all the pain in my muscles that scream from my previous beating and I thrust my hunter's knife up _hard._

I'm not even sure where I was aiming, but I look up to see my knife buried hilt deep in his rib cage. He looks at me in shock, finally slowing down. I push him onto his back as I leap on top of him, tearing my knife out. The blood sprays my face, hot and wet and a twisted part of me comes out and I realize how satisfying the feeling is.

No one ever tells you that killing isn't as easy as they make it in the movies. The blonde still writhes between my legs, enraged at the fact that I stabbed him. I grin. No one ever tells you that it actually takes a lot of work to kill someone. That stabbing them once doesn't make them dramatically plunge to the ground dead. I drive my knife down again and again, making a mess of his torso. His chest is nothing but bloody ribbons and the only thing I feel is satisfied because he was an asshole and a monster, and it felt good.

Something sends a chill down my spine as I swallow, not even pausing in my desecration of this human body. I can't even deny to myself that this felt good. Vengeance felt right. It felt like a part of me.

"Blue! Stop!" I tear our of my reverie to see Caleb tearing me off the body that can't really be called a body any longer. He looks at me strangely, and I realize my entire face is slick with blood.

"It's Leon, the girl he was fighting, she touched him and now we don't know what's wrong with him." He pulls me to my feet, dragging me to where our friend lies on the floor. His skin odd colored, his veins sticking out and prominent against his dry looking skin.

We fall to our knees around him, in shock.


End file.
